INTRODUCTION TO MULTIPHASE FLOW HYDRAULICS

MULTIPHASE PRODUCTION

The simultaneous transfer of hydrocarbon liquid, gas and water from reservoir via wells and pipes to the final separation unit.

Phase envelopes: Gas Condensate and Oil

600 500 400 300 200 Condensate 100 0 -200 Gas and Liquid OIL Gas and Liquid GAS GAS Oil Dew Points Oil Bubble Points Oil Critical Point GC Dew Points GC Bubble Points GC Critical Point

P (BARA)

200

T (C)

400

600

800

Application Examples
On-shore oil gathering system (Saudi Arabia)

Gas-condensate production and transfer to shore (North Sea)

Multiphase Production - Total System

The total producing system includes the reservoir the wells, flow-lines/pipelines and the receiving facilities Each element affects the others. Efficient operations requires mutual compatibility.

drainage boundary

Pr Pwf
well head

Example: pressure losses in a well-flowline -riser

flow line

separator

Pwh riser base

P riser base P sep

well bore

Multiphase ?
Gas + Droplets Liquid Hydrocarbons Gas bubbles Water droplets Free Water Oil droplets Gas bubbles Hydrates Wax Sand

Multiphase flow predictions

are difficult because of:

several flow regimes phase velocity differences

Typical flow regimes (Horizontal flow)

stratified flow

SEPARATED

Stratified flow

(Annular flow)

DISTRIBUTED

Dispersed bubble flow

Slug flow

hydrodynamic slug flow

Flow regimes (in OLGA)

(Vertical flow)

SEPARATED

Annular flow

Dispersed bubble flow

DISTRIBUTED

Slug flow

Important definition Slip is the ratio of the gas velocity to the liquid velocity
average UGas average ULiq

Slip =

normally 1 for co-current horizontal or upwards flow for downward co-current flow the value may be < 1

Important definition Liquid Holdup is the local liquid volume fraction

Gas fraction is the local gas volume fraction

Pipe cross section with stratified flow

Gas Flow Area

Liquid holdup = AL/(AG

+ AL)

(AG)
Liquid Flow Area

Liquid holdup + Gas fraction = 1

(AL)

Important definition
Phase velocities Q = local volume flow rate UG = QG/AG UL = QL/AL Gas Flow Area QG Liquid Flow Area QL Superficial phase velocities (reduced phase velocities) AT = AG + AL USG = QG/AT USL = QL/AT Mixture velocity UM = USL + USG

Single phase flow

L1

L2

axial length L1 = axial length L2

all other boundary parameters and fluid properties are also equal

dP1/dP2 1

Gas-Liquid flow
L1

L2

dP1/dP2 = ?

General relation for pressure and flow

Assume pipe outlet pressure given and fixed

Inlet pressure

Gravity dominated

Friction dominated

Flow rate

Pressure, total liquid content and flow rate Total liquid content

Inlet pressure

Flow rate

Multiphase Flow Production is Transient !

Well operations (shut-in, restart) Slugging Rate changes Pigging Blow-down Tube ruptures and leakage Valve failures Tripping of pumps and compressors

Terrain slugging
The terrain slugging cycle: A: Flow at low points are blocked by liquid B: Pressure builds up behind the blockage C&D: When pressure becomes high enough, gas blows liquid out of the low point as a slug
A. Slug formation C. Gas penetration

B.Slug production

D. Gas blow-down

 HYDRODYNAMIC SLUGGING
p ip e 1 1 p ip e 2 2 p ip e 3 3

a .- t e r r a i n e f f e c t a n d s l u g - s l u g i n t e r a c t i o n
Frequency

S gL g lu en th

b .- s l u g d i s t r i b u t i o n

Hydrodynamic slugging
Two-phase flow pattern maps indicate hydrodynamic slugging, but slug length correlations are quite uncertain tracking of individual slugs along the pipeline is necessary to estimate the volume of the liquid surges out of the pipelines

Pigging
Pigging a line will create a liquid slug ahead of the pig which normally is followed by a gas bubble. Both are a challenge to receiving facilities.

Rate changes
Pipe line liquid content decreases with increasing flow rate Rate changes may trigger liquid instabilities

Initial amount
Liquid Inventory

Amount removed

Final amount

Gas Production Rate

Shut-in - Restart
Liquid redistributes due to gravity during shutin On startup, slugging can occur as flow is ramped up

A-Liquid Distribution After Shutdown

gas liquid Flowrate

B-Gas and Liquid Outlet Flow

Some rules of thumb:

Pipeline with many dips and humps: instabilities are likely at low flow rates (i.e. terrain induced) stable flow is possible at high rates Low Gas Oil Ratio (GOR): increased tendency for unstable flow Gas-condensate lines (high GOR): may exhibit very long period transients due to low liquid velocities Low pressure increased tendency for unstable flow

Temperature and flow assurance

Reservoir Temperature

> 70 C
40oC/104oF
30oC/86oF

Oil
Emulsion Wax Hydrate

Gas

Water drop out Hydrate

20oC/68oF

ambient < -50 C

< 0oC/32o F (determined by ambient)

< 0oC/32oF
(determined by ambient + Joule Thomson)

VISCOSITY and its models

IMPORTANT but not THAT IMPORTANT Viscosity depends on temperature (and pressure)

NEWTONIAN BINGHAM
Fluid must overcome a yield stress to flow Viscosity does not reduce with increased velocity

POWER LAW
Viscosity reduces with increased velocity shear thinning No yield stress

Effective viscosity in mixtures

Effective viscosity vs. temperature (Uliq.,mix = 3.5 m/s, WC=70% and GLR =53)
35 30 Viscosity (CP) 25 20 15 10 5 0 30 35 40 45 Tem perature (C) 50 55 60
Calculated visco sity igno ring emulsio n effect M easured effective visco sity

Advanced Well Modelling Production/Injection Wells

What can you investigate / simulate ? Slugging Production Start-up and shut down Production from several reservoir zones (multilayers, multilateral wells) Analyse cross flow Reservoir injection e.g. (WAG) Smart Wells Gas Lifting Liquid Loading / Water - Condensate Well Testing Segreg/wellbore effects Blowout

A simple well simulated with OLGA

m
-800 0 -400 -800 -400 0

example: Pwh varied from 30 to 50 bara in steps of 5 bar tube ID = 0.101 Pres = 125 bara

-1200 -1600

Liquid flow and Pbh

With slugtracking:

Well and flowline-riser

-1000 500 0 -500 -1000 -1500 -2000

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

Well Flowline-Riser

that gives this liquid flow on the topside:

Entire system:

Conclusion
Multiphase flow systems are strongly depending on their boundary conditions Be careful with: separating the system - e.g. well-tubing from flowline-riser trusting steady state solutions in particular when the pressure losses are gravity dominated.